Targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to specific organs is a highly challenging, exponentially developing area of experimental and translational biomedicine. In traditional drug delivery system, after a patient is administered a therapeutic agent, the agent is distributed throughout the patients' body via the systemic blood circulation. Because only a small amount of the therapeutic agent can reach the organ on which it needs to act, a high initial dose of the therapeutic agent needs to be administered to the patient. Administering a high dose of therapeutic agent to a patient is likely to increase the systemic concentration of the therapeutic agent, which may have an adverse effect on the patient's healthy organs. If targeted delivery is successful, it would result in a significant reduction in drug toxicity, reduction of the drug dose, and increased treatment efficacy.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for compositions and methods that enable targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to specific organs.